Planetary Science
- Planetary Science
Northern Exposure: The inhospitable side of the galaxy?
Our solar system's periodic motion from one side of the galaxy to the other could expose life on Earth to massive amounts of cosmic rays and cause recurring, catastrophic mass extinctions.
- Planetary Science
Little Enceladus disturbs Saturn’s magnetic field
Saturn's tiny moon Enceladus is acting as a brake on the giant planet's magnetic field.
- Planetary Science
Cavernous findings from Mars
Images taken by a Mars-orbiting spacecraft show what appear to be caves on the Red Planet.
- Planetary Science
No Escape: There’s global warming on Mars too
The overall darkening of Mars' surface in recent decades has significantly raised the Red Planet's temperature, a possible cause for the substantial, recent shrinkage of the planet's southern ice cap.
- Planetary Science
Radar probes frozen water at Martian pole
If all the frozen water stored near the south pole of Mars suddenly melted, it would make a planetwide ocean 11 meters deep.
- Planetary Science
Solar-staring spacecraft shows its flare
A new image of the sun's chromosphere, a layer sandwiched between the sun's visible surface and its outer atmosphere, shows a surprisingly complex structure of filaments of roiling gas that promises to shed new light on why the sun erupts.
- Planetary Science
Radar reveals signs of seas on Titan
The northernmost reaches of Saturn's moon Titan appear to be covered with hydrocarbon lakes or seas that are at least 10 times as large as those predicted by earlier studies.
- Planetary Science
Saturn’s rings: A panoramic perspective
Sailing high above Saturn's equator, NASA's Cassini spacecraft took the most sweeping views of the planet's icy rings ever recorded.
- Planetary Science
A crack at life
New images of ancient cracks on Mars suggest that liquid may have percolated through underground rock on the Red Planet, providing a possible habitat for primitive life.
- Planetary Science
Stormy Weather in Space: Craft take panoramic view of solar eruptions
Twin spacecraft have for the first time tracked solar storms, known as coronal mass ejections, from their birth in the lower depths of the sun's atmosphere all the way to Earth's orbit.
- Planetary Science
Solar craft reaches a new low
The Ulysses spacecraft passed directly below the sun on Feb. 7, looking up at its south pole, a feat the craft has done only twice before.
- Planetary Science
Titan’s organic cloud
The Cassini spacecraft has imaged a huge cloud that engulfs most of the north pole of Saturn's icy moon Titan and could be a source of the moon's hydrocarbon lakes.
